Third Presidential Debate 2020 ‘Trump vs Biden’: Who will win? Date, time, how to live stream and what to expect
The last time President Donald Trump and Joe Biden came face to face on September 29, it was a "chaotic" encounter. Many were looking forward to their October 15 meeting, but unfortunately, it was canceled. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) had announced that the debate would take place "virtually" because Trump had contracted Covid-19.
However, Trump refused to participate in the debate in that format and Biden scheduled a townhall with ABC News for that night once Trump said he would not participate. Eventually, Trump also had his own townhall, at the same time as Biden, on NBC.
The only Vice Presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence took place on October 7. Apart from the usual disagreements and discussions, there was something else that had become a hot topic after that debate – a fly. The fly had landed on Pence's hair for several minutes as he answered questions and responded to Harris. The fly soon become a star on social media.
With just a few weeks left for the election, it would be interesting to see Trump and Biden face-off once again. Here are the details of the debate.
When and where?
The last presidential debate will take place at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee on Thursday, October 22.
Who will moderate it?
NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker will moderate the third presidential debate. The debate will go on for 90 minutes without commercial interruptions. Welker has already selected the topics. The topics are: Fighting Covid-19, American Families, Race in America, Climate Change, National Security and Leadership.
According to a report by NPR, the Trump campaign had requested that the debate’s focus be on foreign policy as opposed to the topics chosen by Welker. Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien wrote in a letter to the CPD, “As is the long-standing custom and as had been promised by the Commission on Presidential Debates, we had expected that foreign policy would be the central focus of the October 22 debate."
"We urge you to recalibrate the topics and return to subjects which had already been confirmed.” The letter also said, “We understand that Joe Biden is desperate to avoid conversations on his own foreign policy record, especially since President Trump has secured historic peace agreements among Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain.” He tweeted about the letter saying, “Our letter to the BDC (Biden Debate Commission).”
Our letter to the BDC (Biden Debate Commission) pic.twitter.com/ZsY5JfMbT7
— BillStepien (@BillStepien) October 19, 2020
We had earlier reported that Welker was slammed by Trump and his eldest son on Twitter after a recent report claimed that she had ties with the liberal party. Donald Trump Jr cited a New York Post article titled 'Kristen Welker, upcoming presidential debate moderator, has deep Democrat ties' and tweeted, "Yikes! Here we go again."
Retweeting his son's post, Trump wrote, "She’s always been terrible & unfair, just like most of the Fake News reporters, but I’ll still play the game. The people know! How’s Steve Scully doing?"
Are there changes in rules?
The CPD on October 19 announced Trump and Biden will have their mics cut off in October 22 debate when their opponent is delivering their opening two-minute answer to each of the debate topics. The 90-minute debate is divided into six 15-minute segments. Each candidate will get two minutes to deliver uninterrupted remarks before moving on to an open debate. The open discussion will not have a mute button; however, interruptions by either candidate will count toward their time.
Stepien said Trump “is committed to debating Joe Biden regardless of last minute rule changes from the biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favored candidate.”
Where to watch?
The debate will air on major and cable networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and CNN at 9 pm ET.
What to expect?
After the first debate clashes, it would be interesting to see how the candidates will adjust to the newly introduced mute feature in the debate. While Covid and racial tensions in the country still remain the important talking points, the topic of leadership is also something to look forward to. While Biden had snapped in the last debate and said the now-famous phrase, “Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential”, it will be exciting to see how Biden will keep his calm in this debate, if interrupted by Trump.